


The Heart of Life

by echoinautumn (maybetwice)



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Genderswap, M/M, playing in someone else's sandbox
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-05-26
Packaged: 2017-12-13 02:04:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/818672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybetwice/pseuds/echoinautumn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, meeting up in greasy diners after their shifts is the only chance Kirk and McCoy get to talk about the rest of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Heart of Life

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [When Will I See You Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/807277) by [hollycomb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollycomb/pseuds/hollycomb). 



> This is actually a follow up of sorts, of my _own_ sorts, to [](http://hollycomb.livejournal.com/profile)[**hollycomb**](http://hollycomb.livejournal.com/)’s [When Will I See You Again](http://hollycomb.livejournal.com/162767.html) (specifically the last “life” from part three), so it might be helpful to read that first, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s a very good read, to boot. I did ask permission to borrow the scenario and the characters from this verse before I set out on this, and hopefully it isn’t (too) disappointing. :) Thank you, [](http://hollycomb.livejournal.com/profile)[**hollycomb**](http://hollycomb.livejournal.com/)! And thank you especially to [](http://kittyjimjams.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://kittyjimjams.livejournal.com/)**kittyjimjams** for helping me with my persistent fail at titling things.

*

After a long shift, Jim finds Bones with his head down on the chipped formica table, a cup of lukewarm coffee in front of him, when he steps into the grungy, all-night diner across the street from the hospital. The waitress moves behind the counter, looking a little disgruntled that Jim has the gall to come in so late, but he waves her off and slides into the booth across from Bones. He almost doesn’t have the heart to wake him up, but it’s been a long day, and the last time he saw Bones was hours before, when he brought in a couple in a bad car accident and Bones was heading into delivery for the third time that day. Sometimes he just needs Bones, and so he moves the coffee cup out of reach so he doesn’t get sprayed with coffee and pokes him firmly in the center of his head.

Bones growls at him and looks up, his hair sticking up at odd angles and his eyes red and puffy. “Look what the cat dragged in,” he says, voice thick with sleep, but his lips turn up just a little. Jim likes to think it’s because he’s really glad to see him.

“You look like shit, Bones,” Jim tells him cheerfully and lifts a finger to the waitress for a cup of coffee for himself. “Are you on break or off shift?”

“Off shift,” Bones grunts back at him and sits back against the cheap vinyl cushions. “Didn’t feel much like going back to the apartment just yet.”

Jim hums and puts his feet up on Bones’s cushion, ignoring his dark look entirely in favor of stirring some sugar into the coffee the surly waitress pours for him, hovering the coffee pot over Bones’s cup and refusing to pour more until he nods and presses the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“How was the rest of your shift?” he asks finally, giving in and looking up at him. “Bet it’s not the same without Roo and his girl around.”

Jim breathes his smile out through his nose and just stares into his cup for a few seconds. “First night back on the job without him, the asshole. His replacement’s dumb as a box of rocks, too. Funny how it worked out like that, huh?”

Bones snorts and takes a long drink of coffee. “Would you go back and stop him from saving some pregnant kid if you’d known it meant he’d fall head over heels for her and you’d end up with Ricky the Dumbass Paramedic?” His eyes are piercing, and Jim knows he’s not entirely joking in asking the question.

“Fuck you, Bones,” he laughs, letting go of his bitterness over losing his partner to the girl-shaped whirlwind that swept him all the way to the other end of the country because of a baby, human rights violations, a trafficking investigation involving the FBI and DHS and the State Department. It’s all well above Jim’s pay grade, that’s for sure, let alone Hikaru’s, but it didn’t stop Hikaru from staying with Lina for days, or Jim from covering for him. Jim wonders if he didn’t come here for a reality check, knowing Bones would be here instead of in their apartment and all too happy to square him and his self-absorbed worldview with the way things really were. Jim takes a drink of coffee and finally meets Bones’s eyes. “I’m really happy for him. He had a fucking miserable love life before her.”

“Then quit your bitching,” Bones tells him and finishes his coffee, pushing the cup away and looking up at Jim seriously. “And tell me how _you’re_ doing.”

“Aw, don’t get all psycho-analyzing on me, Bones,” Jim says and starts playing with the sugar packets. “I’m fine. It’s normal, just trying to get used to not having him around. He was my wingman all through college, too, and I thought we were going to be awesome bachelor bros forever. It’s weird not having him around. I told him before he left that he had to come back and show off the dozens of babies he has with her, though.”

“They’ll be happy, I’m sure. They’re disgusting and cute.” Bones rubs his hair out of his face, which serves only to make it stick up a little more. “You’re not a goddamn bachelor, though,” he reminds him with a cold look, and Jim is caught between a laugh and an embarrassed blush.

“Figuratively,” he says and laughs while hoping Bones won’t notice the blush, because their thing is pretty low-key, always has been. “We went out together all the time. Hung out at bars, played Xbox back at his place and drank beer. Not having him at work is like trying to do my job without my right arm.”

“You’ll adjust,” Bones tells him dismissively, and when he reaches down and squeezes Jim’s knee next to him, Jim doesn’t even mind that he’s ignoring his overdramatic disappointment.

“Maybe I’ll become a nurse and work with you in the hospital, _Doctor._ ” Jim grins over the table and rubs his booted foot over Bones’s thigh. “It’ll be hot.”

“Except I’m a _doctor_ , Jim, not a porn star. I spend my days up to my elbows in amniotic fluid. That’s got _fetal urine_ in it. It’s about the least sexy thing I can think of.” When Jim makes a face, Bones laughs, though, and he rubs his hand over Jim’s calves.

“You’re making it hard for me to want to deliver any more miracle babies in the back of my ambulance,” he mutters and closes his eyes with a quiet moan. “Don’t stop doing that. What were you doing asleep in here, anyway?”

“Got a call from Jules when I got off shift.” They don’t talk often about Bones’s other life, the one he had before he moved out to San Francisco and started working at the hospital, but sometimes little reminders trickle through, like that Bones has a son he’s not allowed to see because of a brutal divorce agreement. Sometimes his ex is feeling benevolent and Bones takes off with little more than a few days’ notice to wherever he can go to see his boy. It’s one of the issues that worries Jim about their thing, which is getting more and more serious, whether he wants to admit it or not.

Jim sighs. “When are you going this time?” Bones doesn’t always see his son in Atlanta, sometimes it’s when his mother is traveling and they meet in strange cities all over the country. It’s not functional, but Jim isn’t going to tell Bones that he shouldn’t see him just because he thinks his ex is yanking his chain.

Bones doesn’t answer for a minute, and that’s worrying enough, but then he squeezes Jim’s leg again. “I’m not going. I told them I’ll see them at Christmas.” There’s a long pause and Jim watches his throat working. “I told them about you. Nothing serious, before you get upset. I wasn’t totally clear about it, but I _am_ seeing someone—that’s you, by the way, Bachelor Boy—and Joey ought to know.”

Jim clears his throat and looks away, picking at his uniform. They don’t have conversations like this, all emotion and awkward situations, but Jim has really wanted to meet Joey for a long time and just assumed it would never happen. It was Bones’s other life, after all, same as Jim’s old life, the kind that they left behind and tried to bury in order to make way for something new, same as Hikaru and Lina are doing now, and both of _them_ have enough to move past.

“So what does it mean?” he asks and thinks for a moment that maybe that’s the wrong question to ask, because it’s too much, too soon.

Bones’s beeper flares to life on his hip, and he looks down at it with a sigh. “It means we’ll have to finish this conversation back at the apartment when I get home. Mrs. Peterson just checked into the hospital dilated nine and a half centimeters.” He stands up and looks bitterly at the empty coffee cup on the table, but when he bends and kisses Jim on the forehead, his expression softens. “I saw half your cases in the ER today, I know you’re tired. Go home and get some sleep. We’ll talk about you going to Georgia with me tomorrow night.”

Jim grabs his neck before he can leave and slips his tongue between his lips when Bones starts to protest, but when he’s done, he grins easy at him. “Go help some more miracle babies along, Doctor McCoy.”

“Go home, Jim,” Bones laughs and looks at his shadowy reflection in the window while trying to fix his hair. “I’ll be home by three.”

“Better be,” Jim shoots back with a grin, pays for their coffee, and if he corners Bones in the parking lot for a quick makeout, he figures that Mrs. Peterson still has another half a centimeter to dilate by the time Bones gets there. All the better, even, because at least Bones leaves in a good mood.


End file.
